Donald Trump on Friday attempted to resolve an issue that is thought to have caused him significant damage with minority voters by admitting that Barack Obama was born in the US after years of promoting false claims that the US president was born in Kenya.

Trump finally admits Obama was born in the US – campaign live

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But the Republican presidential candidate continued to falsely claim that his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton was behind the conspiracy theory.

Speaking in the presidential ballroom of his new luxury hotel in Washington, Trump boasted about his new establishment, trotted out over a half-dozen generals to fawn over him and then almost casually remarked that he now thinks the president was born in the US, before walking swiftly away in what bore more resemblance to a dog and pony show than a campaign event.

Although Trump’s campaign released a statement on the topic last night, the Republican nominee had never publicly acknowledged that Obama was born in the US.

Trump had long fanned the flames of this conspiracy theory, known as “birtherism”. He spent much of spring 2011 garnering media attention by constantly claiming without any evidence that Obama might have born overseas. The allegations that Obama, who was born in Honolulu on 4 August 1961, was born in Kenya have long been considered a racist dogwhistle.

Although his campaign said in the statement sent late night: “In 2011, Mr Trump was finally able to bring this ugly incident to its conclusion by successfully compelling President Obama to release his birth certificate,” Trump has repeatedly questioned the circumstances of Obama’s birth since then.

As recently as 2014, Trump suggested that Obama’s birth certificate was faked, and in 2013 he even suggested that the late state health official who certified the birth certificate had been murdered. In an interview published on Thursday in the Washington Post, Trump hedged on the question, saying: “I’ll answer that question at the right time. I just don’t want to answer it yet.”

His answer on Friday was limited to only a few seconds at the end of 40-minute event, which was inaccurately billed as a press conference and then as Trump finally addressing the topic of Obama’s birthplace.

Instead, it was as CNN anchor Jake Tapper called it, a “rick roll”, analogizing it to the internet practice of sending a email promising one thing and replacing it with a link to the 1987 Rick Astley music video for Never Going to Give You Up.

Trump started the event by praising his new hotel, stating: “I think when this hotel opens – one of the best hotels anywhere in the world … I really think this will be the best hotel in Washington.” He was followed by a parade of former generals and Medal of Honor recipients who repeatedly lauded Trump in glowing terms, all aired live on cable television.

Only then did Trump address the matter at hand. “Now, not to mention her in the same breath, but Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy,” he said. “I finished it. I finished it. You know what I mean, President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period. Now we all want to get back to making America strong and great again. Thank you.”

Trump concluded his remarks as reporters, separated from the podium by six rows of Trump supporters attending as spectators, attempted to ask questions.

The spectacle happened as rival Clinton spoke only a few blocks away at the Black Women’s Agenda symposium, held at a downtown hotel.

Clinton said that “there is no erasing” Trump’s role in spreading the “birther” gospel. “For five years he has led the birther movement to delegitimize our first black president,” she said. “His campaign was founded on this outrageous lie.

“He is feeding into the worst impulses, the bigotry and bias, that lurks in our country. Barack Obama was born in America, plain and simple, and Donald Trump owes him and the American people an apology.”

Pausing frequently for rounds of enthusiastic clapping, Clinton thanked the group for boosting her candidacy in the primary season and said a strong turnout by African American women could tip the election in her favor.

“In many ways, this profound choice is up to the women in this room,” she said.

“African American women turned out to vote more than any other group of Americans in 2012. This year, once again, you have your hands on the wheel of history and you can write the next chapter of the American story.”

Her campaign manager, Robby Mook, said in a statement: “Trump’s actions today were disgraceful. After five years of pushing a racist conspiracy theory into the mainstream, it was appalling to watch Trump appoint himself the judge of whether the President of the United States is American.

When asked about Trump’s views on his birthplace earlier in the day, Obama told reporters: “I’m shocked that a question like that has come up at a time when we have so many other things to do.”

He added: “Well, I’m not that shocked actually. It’s fairly typical. We got other things to attend to. I was pretty confident about where I was born. I think most people were as well. My hope would be the presidential election reflects more serious issues than that.”